10 Days and Counting

Day 20 Rewind.

This morning we woke up early so we could get our laundry done. Handwashing and drying takes up alot of time, and space. Not to mention nothing feels completely clean, and everything stretches. We took it slow this morning for once, now that we´re back on our own schedule. Yuka drew the door of our $4 hostel as I drew on my eyebrows. A promising new day.

We arrived to Isla de Ometepe this evening, an island on a lake in Nicaragua made by volcanic rocks millions of years ago. On the island itself there are 2 huge volcanos whose peaks were wrapped in dark ominous clouds lit up by flashes of lightning as our boat pulled up to the island. So exhiliarating. It got dark quick, but our taxi driver assured us it´s a really safe island and everyone´s chill. Horses and cows roam free by the roads, and look so much happier than those we saw in Granada.

We had high expectations for Granada, but it was aiite. The cathedrals and churches and buildings were similiar to the ones in Antigua with their colonial design, but the mercado definitely overshadowed the pretty buildings. The mercado was dirty, noisy, and wreaked of all kinds of nasty odors. Typical.

Before getting to Granada, we left from Honduras, where we met Yama-chan, a 28 yr old dude from Japan on his voyage around the world. In the past 2 years, he had traveled from Korea through southeast Asia, through Europe, Egypt and Morocco, NY and LA, Australia, and now making his way through Central America on a similiar route as ours. And then through South America. He´s only had 2 weeks of Spanish class, and his English sucks. I don´t know how he gets around, but he has absolutely no problem asking the locals for an ounce of weed. We stayed at the hostel together with him in Granada and it was nice to have a threesome for a lil bit. Mike, you two have some very striking similiarites, it´s a little trippy sometimes! He´s a Japanese version of you. We may meet up here in Isla tomorrow when he comes.

Honduras was an interesting one. Our original plan was to check out the Mayan Ruins of Copán, but we got in touch with Claudia, one of our contacts, who opened up her small house to us for a couple nights. Her house was tiny but packed with 3 generations of family. So we stayed there in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, which is extremely hilly and... city-like..? We went up to El Picacho, on top of a hill looking over all of Tegucigalpa. It was incredible. So many colorful houses scattered over the hilly terrain of Tegus. We also went to do a mini service project in one of the poorest communities, where the parents don´t know how to read and have tons of kids, and the kids don´t go to school because they have to work, and most of these families don´t have toilets. The recent rain and hurricane weather caused mudslides and trashslides devastating a lot of the poorly constructed shacks placed on these hillsides. From a far, Tegucigalpa has a magnificent view worth enjoying and taking several pictures of. But when you zoom in on these houses and families, it´s a harsh reality. We planted two little baby trees and they named them Yuka and Nina. Even though Honduras was frankly a very uncomfortable experience, it was a valuable one.

Before Honduras we had gone to El Salvador. Getting there was terrible. We got on a camiñeta (basically a pimped out schoolbus with flames or sharkfins painted with outrageous colors) and got to scary Guatemala City where we transferred to a bus to El Salvador. Little did we know, we were getting jipped, once again. And little did we know, the bus was going to El Salv, but only to the border, not to San Salvador, the capital. Once we neared the border, the traffic was impossible, trucks were backed up for about a mile. So we jumped off with our backpacks and walked the rest of the way to the Guatemala/El Salv frontier, being led by a very handsome young fellow. From there we had no choice but to hop into a sketchy taxi to catch a bus from a different city. We almost died four times on that taxi ride. Imagine. 4 cars passing at the same time. And imagine those 4 cars passing about 4 cars at a time. Half way through our driver buckles his belt. At least we know he wasn´t tryna get killed.

There were so many other complications along the way with taxis, buses, and getting dropped off in the middle of nowhere kinda stuff, but we finally arrived at the house where we had arranged to stay. The Cerén family owns a smallll house in the country and they kept saying they wish they could offer more than their humble house but that they were so lucky and happy to have us, going as far as saying we were God´s blessing to them. The parents sell chocolate and cheese, but just like everyone else, it´s a hard knock life. They have 4 boys and 1 girl, but only Adriana and lil Rodrigo were at home during our stay. The family basically put their life on hold to attend us wherever we needed to go. But we had so much fun just staying at their house, where we shared such good conversation in our awkward Spanish. We played cute lil games, the kind you learn at camp, and watched lil Rodrigo perform simple magic tricks. The morning before we left, we had a little water balloon fight. It was so easy to fall in love with this family, and promised them and ourselves, we had to come back. El Salvador isn´t a very pretty place. It´s actually a very unattractive place. The land just looks overworked and tired, and you step on trash and sewage everywhere you go. But because of the Cerén family, El Salv is like a little gem. Like a lil treasure in our hearts.

Before El Salv, we had a cute vacation-like weekend in Antigua, the colonial getaway that everyone raves about. Our initial impression - this is too romantic for us, the two very single ladies that we are. But Antigua had lots to offer. During the day we checked out the fun market area, full of colors and patterns and purses and jewelry and gifts, it was trippy. We checked out a coffee shop run by a crazy old white man from Cali, who claims to have made unprecedented findings in the world of coffee-making. His shop´s cleanliness was questionable, keeping honey in used Jose Cuervo bottles, but his coffee was a deep earthy delight. Other than that, the street and buildings and central park area are all very scenic and cute.

We also decided to check out Antigua´s nightlife. We went to bar after bar, each one more dead than the one before. Finally we went to Sin La Ventura, where the locals from Antigua and Guat City come to dance and party. Once you step in, they just draw you up in nets like fish. And the guys are more than willing to teach you salsa, merengue, even when they´re playing reggaeton.

Next day we were supposed to leave for our next stop, but we decided to stay and see more of Antigua. As we stepped out of our hostel, this blonde girl starts waving from across the street. It was LISA. From Tikal, whose pictures I took for her and promised to upload on FB but never got her last nname and felt really bad. What a small ass world. We made plans to meet that night and after a few drinks and a shot with the bartender to celebrate our last night in Antigua, we returned to Sin La Ventura, where we met some very chill LA/Guat boys, César, Lester, and Henry, looked out for us and showed a good time, all the while bashing our Celtics. Tough exterior, but all softies! One of our funnest nights so far.

So that brings us up to date pretty much.

Mañana we explore Isla de Ometepe, a candidate for the eighth world wonder. Our 21 yr old taxi driver offered to give us an all day tour tomorrow and show us everything. $60 and he´s all ours for the day. Still pending...

They might not recognize us as gringas anymore, we´re about the same skin color as everybody else.

Soonia and ladies at home, we´re calling a mask party once we´re back. Clean our all this dirt from Mexico, Belize, Guate, El Salv, Honduras, Nica, CR, and Panamá all stuck up in our pores.

And I can´t wait to download Latin America´s Top 100 chart!